Sometimes there is a very tenuous/weak link and this next one has to be the poorest excuse I’ve ever used to post some music in relation to football. But it is also gives me a great excuse to shine a light on a Crystal Palace legend:

Vince Hilaire, who was a member of the Crystal Palace ‘Team of the Eighties’ – so called because Terry Venables took them to the semi-finals of the FA Cup and from the Third Division to the First Division in three seasons.

About the man…

Vince was one of the first established black players in English football, but at the time racism was rife. It was in 1976 when a teenage Hillaire was warming up on the sidelines in an away game at Port Vale. He remembers:

“…I came out of the dug-out, and I started jogging around the touchline. I couldn’t believe the abuse that was coming at me… animal noises and all the names you think of calling a black person. Any name under the sun. And it frightened me a bit, so I couldn’t wait to get back in the dug-out. And I thought, ‘Well, if this is the sort of reception I’m going to get, then I don’t really want to know’ “

But he rose above all that and became an essential part of Palace’s success with his wing play. In his seven years at the club he made over 255 appearances and scored 29 goals. He was in the team that was promoted to the First Division and was voted the supporters ‘Player of The Year’ for two successive seasons in 1979 & 1980. Plus he was called up for the England Under 21’s.

After leaving Crystal Palace he joined Luton Town but made only six appearance before being transferred to Portsmouth a few months later. There he made 146 appearances, scoring 25 goals and was once again part of the team that gained promotion to Division One.

Ah remember that second summer of love… after everybody was coming down from all that rave and ACIIIEEEEED ! stuff this band emerged and moved us into the chilout room where we all blissed out…

(Well you did. I didn’t.)

The acid house duo of Jon Marsh and Steve Waddington, known as The Beloved embraced the dance music and in 1989 they saw The Sun Rising. Then a year later they were saying Hello to various people, some famous, some fictional.